Building a relationship between News and GenZ by making it easier to access, verify and consume.

Project Overview

Duration

15 Weeks

Region

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Team

Anwesha Sengupta

Andres Galicia

Irika Mehta

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View White Paper

Methodologies Used

My Role

Subject Matter Expert Interviews, In-Depth Interviews, Culture Probe, Survey, Affinity Mapping, User Journey Mapping, Rapid Prototyping, Storytelling

Foundational Research
User Interviews
Synthesis and Insights Mapping
Prototype Testing
Storytelling

Project Goal

We aimed to understand Gen Z's perception of Vice and their navigation of the news and media landscape. By exploring their attention-holding factors, we developed strategies to increase their engagement with Vice.

Project Impact

Through 37 user interviews, contextual inquiry, and a 7 day culture probe, we developed an integrated platform prototype that revolutionizes the accessibility and verifiability of news related to a specific topic.

My Leanings

Through this project, I discovered the significance of experimenting with various methodologies and the importance of remaining adaptable and open to pivoting, especially in the early stages of research. I recognized that leveraging storytelling techniques is essential for delivering synthesized insights effectively, enabling better engagement and understanding among stakeholders.

Process Overview

My Contributions

For this project, I was involved in leading the research and insights as well as the user testing stages of the research

Research and Insights - I designed the interview guides, culture probe and .managed recruitment and execution of the research process.

User Testing - I identified the best methodology for testing various prototypes and led the execution of it, and led in facilitation of workshops for testing usability of the concepts.

Research Overview

58

SURVEY RESPONDENTS

The Survey showed us that GenZ were relying on social media for their primary source of information

6

EXPERT INTERVIEWS

This gave us an insight into content decisions made by media companies and their ways of working.

7

DAYS CULTURE PROBE

The probe was a gamified version of structuring the in depth interviews to engage GenZ.

10

PROBE RESPONDENTS

The Probe gave us insights into why social media is a popular choice with GenZ and the kind of content they like.

15

INTERVIEW RESPONDENTS

The interview was an extension of the probe, which taught us the emotional responses GenZ has to news.

Phase 1 - Foundation

Understanding theLandscape

Who Is Vice?

With a portfolio of companies across advertising, art, film, television, and beyond, Vice Media Group has a unique voice, covering content not seen in traditional media, and focusing on the voice and needs of the youth.

Why Vice Newz?

For this project, we decided to specifically look into the non-entertainment media, more specifically news, and understand the relationship GenZ has with the brand and content.

The reason we chose to focus on 'Vice News' is because it is the most extensive vertical and spread across various platforms.

Our Audience in Focus

THE LARGEST GENERATION ON EARTH - GENZ
Born between 1997 - 2012

Constituting 32% of the global population — or 2.47 billion of the 7.7 billion people on Earth

Assumptions from Initial Desk Research

Our Initial Research led us to formulate the hypothesis that GenZ's reliance on short video formats and lack of trust is the reason behind low engagement with VICE News

The Dgital Generation -

GenZ heavily relies on social media as their source of information

Information Seeking Behavior -
Even though there is a lack of trust and trend of content fatigue, GenZ seek out info about topics they really care about.

Phase 2 - Research Plan

The Research Objective

GenZ wants meaningful, impactful news, and VICE News had already found a niche in covering unique content. However, our Initial Research led us to formulate the hypothesis that GenZ's reliance on short video formats and lack of trust is the reason behind low engagement with VICE News. To understand what stood in the way of VICE Media Group fostering a strong relationship with its GenZ readership, we needed to uncover deeper insights.

The primary objective was to understand how GenZ consumes media and their perception

VALUE
What does GenZ believe makes news worth reading and supporting? What characteristics define an ideal news experience

PERCEPTIONS
How do previous experiences create expectations as well as relationships with individual news sources

The Research Plan

FORMAT
Understand GenZ’s preferred content format and the reasons behind them.

The research phase was broken down into initial data collection through desk research, followed by the formation of hypothesis.
Following that, the research guide and the culture probe was designed and executed.
The findings from the qualitative research was then validated through a survey.

Participant Recruitment

We tapped into our network of international students at Parsons by sending out an initial call to action through social media posts. The students who responded further helped us connect with people across NYC. We ensured that our interview respondents were from various ethnicities, and identities. Even though most were based out of New York, a lot of them had strong ties to their home countries.

We targeted GenZ who were currently in the age of their undergraduate and graduate education. All our participants met the following criteria:

Aged 18-25
Currently live in the tristate area

In addition, we wanted our participants to range from transplants to natives. We defined the terms as follows:

Transplants - Have lived in the Tristate area for less than 5 years
Natives - Born and raised in the Tristate area

Outcome of Initial Interviews

The initial set of interviews led us to understand that this format is not the best method to engage GenZ.

The Culture Probe as a Pivot

A gamified version of structuring the in depth interviews was more engaging for GenZ which led to the design of the Culture Probe.

The probe was run over 5 days, with a series of mad libs style prompts shared digitally. Respondents were given the day to observe, think and reply.

After each response, we followed up with a short QnA to understand the reasons behind their thinking.

Responses to the Culture Probe

The probe encouraged participants to think differently, fostering creativity and providing them with the freedom to express themselves in various ways. This approach served as an excellent entry point for meaningful and enriching conversations. For example, when asked about their interests and emotions, one participant depicted it through clouds, leading to a discussion about their hopes, fears, desired news content, and the cycle of engagement and disengagement due to distress.

Phase 3 - Research Synthesis

Content consumption is an overwhelming experience for Gen Z

Insights from Research

Insight 1 - Fatigue

GenZ experiences content fatigue and distress due to overwhelming information and algorithmic control over their feeds, limiting their agency in choosing what to read and care about.

Building on the previous insight, we noticed the desire for access to information that is rapid and engaging. TikTok emerged as one of the most preferred platforms due to its engaging reels format that is bite-sized in nature.

Insight 4 - Wayfinding

Way finding through multiple channels is confusing.

WIth multiple channels on social media, and different media companies covering different kinds of content, it becomes hard for GenZ to reach the content they really care about and they lose interest before they even get to it, thus losing engagement.

Insight 2 - Quick Access

There is a desire for quick and dynamic information

Insight 3 - Motives

Series of feedback sessions with the faculty and larger cohort kicked off the synthesis process. We used affinity mapping and round robin discussions to reach the insights. I designed 2 round robin sessions with the cohort and they were particularly effective, because it helped bring a fresh pair of eyes when it came to synthesizing insights.

Content Sharing has ulterior motives

GenZ lacks trust in information due to widespread misinformation. The rise of influencer culture further complicates their ability to differentiate between factual information and personal opinions.

“The incentive to produce content is to earn money, power or influence over followers”

“I feel overwhelmed with the number of outlets covering different kinds of news.”

"News is insightful, but sometimes, it feels too much."

“In today's world, when everything happens so quickly, it is easier to receive this information in a quick, dynamic way.”

Phase 3 - Strategy

Opportunity Areas

CONNECTION & COMMUNICATION

Catching GenZ’s curiosity and exposing them to VMG's platforms and catch their curiosity in inviting them to experience VICE content.

Concept Prototypes

Prototype 1 - VICE Swipe

Content swiping - a gamified approach to empowering users, displaying stories they are interested in and keeping them engaged longer.
It would act as a wayfinding tool that matches users to the most relevant VICE topics and social media channels based on an interests quiz and swiping patterns.
The content presented could be made multi faceted by adding a 'Listen to' and 'Key Takeaways' option with VICE articles. Most of our research participants admitted that they are leaning into audio formats like podcasts, audio clips and read the news only by the headline.

Prototype 2 - VICE Orbits

An ‘ORBIT’ is created based on a core theme (e.g. Climate Change), based on Blockchain Tech.
VICE updates content tagged with climate change and the blockchain is updated

The ORBIT becomes an integrated platform holding content on one topic from all of VICE's multiple verticals.

The dynamic nature of the platform allows it to change visually, populating the orbit with the addition of new content. Based on blockchain technology the development of the orbit is recorded in the form of a timeline making it a unique archival artifact.

Future Possibilities

Value Proposition